"Diesel additive required" – Peugeot / Citroen engines =(

Hi…has anyone been through this one with a Pug / Citroen engine? I have a warning message telling me I have to add diesel additive due to the fancy-pants exhaust management but when you look into this reports are everything from the DIY lot who say it is possible to do it for £50-100, through to tales of garages (mainly the dealers) charging £500-1000!!
Apparently if you don’t do it again reports range from turbo / engine failure / armageddon to just ignoring a warning message.

Could the more automotive-ly minded furnish me with opinion? It was never like this when I used to strip my Mini down 20 years ago!

I have a Pug 307 2.0l hdi ’03 plate btw.

Thanks, drlamb

Its to do with the Diesel particualte filter i suspect, although your cars age seems abit early to have that. You can do it yourself, however you have to do a bit of work with the ecu to reset the counter i.e, the level of the additive is determined by how many times the additive is added, which is triggered by the fuel cap release (usually).

As to what will happen if you dont refill, not sure. If there is a DPF, then it will block eventually, which will cause bigger issues.

I am waiting for my light to come on, I think the cheapest way to do it would be to get your own ilexa kit (engine management diagnostic tool) off ebay for £130 (you also need a puter that is running xp,NOT VISTA) and fill it yourself (think the fluid is £100)

Had ours done a while ago by our local garage (On a Citroen C8, 52 plate) as part of the normal service… Cost around £100 extra… as they had all the bits necessary. The additive is expensive and (from what they told me) you can’t buy the right amount for one engine so now have some liquid spare!

Clong – yes that fits in with my reading and partial understanding, including the blocked filter that leads to more woe. I know if the turbo gets into grief it’s *really* bad news…

Graham – I’ll look at the service option, though I’m sure that it’s not due for a while yet. AFAIK the fluid is also covered by COSHH regs and so is at best difficult to get?

Mark – thanks for info…I’ll have a look at what you suggest.

The view seems to be that it’s around the 50k mark that it triggers (avg mileage I guess) so perhaps if you know about it and factor it in, a reasonably priced garage job is not so bad. Unfortunately I knew nothing of it (being more two wheels than the four on t’missus car) and this will hurt my pocket / shiny stuff consumption (ditto two wheels point…)

Clong +1

That’s exactly right….. Don’t ignore the light for too long because the DPF will block and your car will conk out. The fluid used to fill the tank is not very nice to get on your skin, so pleased be careful if you decide to do this yourself.

All sound advice above.

All I would add is that there are issues with the ECU that runs the additive system.The DPF has differential pressure sensors, so the main engine management ECU will know (in theory) if the DPF is blocked.

And always fill the tank when you refill, as opening the fuel filler cap is logged by the system and for some reason this seems to accelerate the need for more additive.
Hth
Marko

The additive is expensive and (from what they told me) you can’t buy the right amount for one engine so now have some liquid spare!

Cheeky sods, like they haven’t a car in tomorrow having exactly the same work…

Thanks all…

Marko – I think that there is a poss pressure drop issue with the sensors etc which would be one of the reasons not to mess with it. Filling right up is good advice, though trying to convince mrslamb…

I’m going through the phone book now, though b r does touch on the thing in the back of my mind (you know, wondering if they’ve seen me coming on this one)

Cheers to you all for advice.

Where are you in the UK? I might know a garage in your area.
Hth
Marko

Hi Marko I’m in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Willing to travel for the right service. For the car I mean… 🙂

Hi drlamb,
Sorry don’t know anyone in your area.
Marko

Due to your vehicle being an early type of particle filter it will require changing at 60000 miles as well as filling the additive tank with ( dpx42 ) and resetting on the computer .but what I’m sure you want to know is the way to recondition the unit for next to nothing , remove the particle filter , ( careful not to damage pre/post pressure pipes ) and soak unit in brick acid ( builders merchant ) then with full face mast steam clean until water flows through unit clean . Refit . Filling is easy but you will have to buy the kit from main dealer and get a Peugeot/citroen dealer/specialist to reset fluid level in the particle filter Ecu but as previous posts have said it will keep loosing power until the particle filter blocks and won’t go over 20mph . It sound a lot of messing but a dealer will charge £600 plus so it’s worth doing the regen instead of replacing . Best of luck ( I’ve worked for Peugeot for 20 years do I KNOW this works )

Have a look on frenchcarforum.co.uk, they may have a guide on how to do a diy job. Eurocarparts seem to sell the additive, though its over £112 for 4.5ltrs!!!

Thanks anyway Marko.

also thanks to chrisdiesel and P20. I visited the local Peugeot dealer yesterday and got a quote around the £200 mark for the additive / computer job which I guess will just have to be done, but I have a feeling that the particle filter may have already been done – I need to check the service history. If not, I’ll be trying that method Chris. Sounds hardcore!

If anyone reads this in future and has a similar problem, drop me a line and I’ll tell you what the eventual income is/was!

Cheers, drlamb

Jetwash and a full bottle of cillit bang lime and grime on my particle filter seemed to do the job fine, 3000 miles on and no problems.

My local garage did exactly as chrisdiesel suggested. It works.

things I have learnt from this this thread…

1. older diesels are definitely best. Already cursing that my HDI can’t run on vege but it is nicer to drive than an old 1.9td.

2. Cleaning out a DPF sounds cool. Maybe I should set up doing it for people 😀

The fluid is called ELOYS (proper name is CERIN) it’s there to aid the regeneration of the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) i.e. Burn The Soot Off.

In laymans terms is does this:

The fluid is injected with fuel, and when the car is ready for regen (it senses this throught varoius sensors, inc an exhaust differential pressure sensor) it will inject a little more thus allowing the Combustion Temperature to rise and burn off the soot content of the DPF.

When topping up there are a couple of necessary things to reset to allow it to function properly………

The stuff is very very expensive, and is also not very good for the environment, so DIY can be a little tricky!

What about Ad Blue? See some VW engines are now using it.

Ad Blue is different again and made of pee.

Eloys oil can be bought on ebay for the die hard DIY’r. It come in a 4.5 ltr bottle with fast on connectors so that you cant spill the bloody stuff. Its nasty!
I did my focus (peugoet engine) last year. The tank is located just infront of the main fuel tank and has two fast on connectors which match the refill bottle.
I bought my refill for £40 on fleabay.
ECU has to be programmed to let it know that the tank has been replenished as it works on a counter each time you open the fuel cap.

Total cost £45 for eolys + £70 Ford garage diagnostic reset.

Job done.

DPF’s are a right pain in the butt.

The problem with the whole DPF environmental thing on diesel cars is that it was a system that was hastily invented to meet euro 4 regulations. Its also a pain in the arse that every time you make a change you need to reset the ECU with diagnostics.

Cheepo diagnostics dont work its usually in my experience a dealer rip off. £75 for 2mins work!!!!!

Anyone on here who knows more about the HDi engine than I do know if the 306 hdi90 uses a DPF, if so what kind? I’ve been getting horrendously low MPG recently (below 40, used to get >50) and I can’t decide if it’s my intake goo’d up by EGR, my injectors or the exhaust.

Just to finish off the thread, it was the best part of £300 in the end. Ah well, at least the bu99er isn’t beeping at me now.

Was that for filling the fluid or was that the filter cleaned as well?

This thread is a good example of why petrol engined cars are better.

That was for the fluid, filling, computer reset and a load of opportunities to tell me that several other things were wrong and they’d like more money please 🙄
The filter wasn’t done. Maybe I was…

This thread is a good example of why petrol engined cars bikes are better.

There are vids on you tube on how to clean the filter yourself. if you do it before the light comes on it will save you getting another reset done. I bought the interface and computer to do a job on my C5 that then self diagnosed itself before the kit arrived, still I have it for the next job now.(only £200 down)